10 Cringeworthy Doctor Who Moments

9. 'Oh, Dear... The Myrka' - Warriors Of The Deep

Best we get this one out of the way sooner rather than later, shall we? This one falls under the category of scripts whose writers forgot the budget of the show they were working on. If we read Terrance Dicks' description of the Silurians' 'living weapon' from the Warriors of the Deep novelisation, the Myrka sounds very impressive: 'They caught a glimpse of glowing eyes, corrugated green skin and savage fangs.' The Doctor goes on to describe it as a cyborg, and if you had read the novelisation and hadn't seen the episode yet, as some of us had, that description had you excited at all the possibilities of what you would see. Then you got...

...two men who did pantomime horses for a living in a costume which is the reptilian equivalent of a pantomime horse. 'Oh, dear' doesn't even begin to cover it. Another big problem with the Myrka: it can kill you with a touch, because everything it touches turns to s**t. It's as if everyone's acting skills switch off the moment they see it. Only Davison seems suitably worried about it. The extras who get killed by the thing as they cower away from it along a corridor do fairly convincing dying screams, but then they just... kinda fall as gently as possible to the floor. Can't go hurting yourself if you're only getting five pounds per day and lunch, can you? And then there's... well, just watch. The madness begins at the :38 second mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUCSlb-jhsU We love Ingrid Pitt, we really do, but this... this is enough to send you screaming into the night, or screaming into the nearest pillow with laughter, whichever comes more naturally. More people probably remember this moment and its cringiness than the Myrka itself. But just remember: it all starts with the Myrka. All cringiness starts with the Myrka. All cringiness. The Myrka. The Myrka.